27 July (Fire) Liber LXV, 4:38-41
-
38. Across the waveless sea of eternity Thou didst ride with Thy captains and Thy hosts; with Thy chariots and horsemen and spearmen didst Thou travel through the blue.
39. Before I saw Thee Thou wast already with me; I was smitten through by Thy marvellous spear.
40. I was stricken as a bird by the bolt of the thunderer; I was pierced as the thief by the Lord of the Garden.
41. O my Lord, let us sail upon the sea of blood! -
38. Across the waveless sea of eternity Thou didst ride with Thy captains and Thy hosts; with Thy chariots and horsemen and spearmen didst Thou travel through the blue.
I recall the definition of Yoga from the Sutra's: stopping the transformations of the mind stuff. The sea being that mind, and the lack of waves being an indication that it has been stopped. This stopping of the mind results in it being revealed as the sea of eternity, because when there is a lot of turbulence in the mind it seems to be anything but eternal.
The next image invokes that of an invading army or force; and to my mind, the blue is either the heaven of Jupiter or the dark, almost black blue of the night sky above the firmament—above the abyss. I'm not sure what difference this makes because I'm pretty sure this army is arrayed against the speaker in any case, as I think is borne out in the following lines.
39. Before I saw Thee Thou wast already with me; I was smitten through by Thy marvellous spear.
Frankly, I'm just a little tired of the phallic allusions, which is probably part of this image, so consider it noted. I would rather dwell on the conflict-based allusions. One image hat comes to mind is the image of Christ on the cross who finally loses his life when he is pierced by the spear, water and blood flowing from the wound and being collected into the cup or grail. It recalls the Thelemic symbolism of the adept/saint giving every drop of his blood, and that blood being collected in the cup of our lady Babalon. This line and the previous line describe a series of events that can be summed up in the words: overcome by a superior force!
40. I was stricken as a bird by the bolt of the thunderer; I was pierced as the thief by the Lord of the Garden
Now, there are very intriguing images, imo. Initially I feel the thunderer is either an allusion to Chockmah, or again, Chesed; and the garden and thief recalls the crucifixion.
The Chesed connections makes marginally more more sense to me though because the bird is a creature of air, active and flitty, like the mind. The Thunderer is then Jupiter who wields the thunderbolt and echoes my association above to the blue being the heaven of Jupiter. The trivial life of the mind is utterly blasted, like in the 'House of God' tarot trump.
The reference to the thief is perhaps polluted by my familiarity with Waiting for Godot by Samuel Becket. Suffice it to say, the poetry of being a thief in the night, who comes to steal something of great worth, and who is slain in the process is quite mystical and suggestive.
41. O my Lord, let us sail upon the sea of blood!
I connect the notion of blood in this instance with the images of slaughter and also with the monthly period of a woman. Both imply death of a sort: the blood of a fallen soldier is obvious for slaughter, while the fact that a woman has her period is proof she is not pregnant and may even be a form of miscarriage should there have been a fertilized embryo. To get a little Kenneth Grant here, the flowing of blood in both instance is a type of purification, or massacre of the innocents.
The images for the beloved are manifold and varied, all true and false at the same time. Today's meditation has left me with the impression of Adonai as a great a terrible lord of war and destruction.
Love and Will
-
Reminds me of a battle scene from Braveheart. A bunch of scotsmen standing around, not really wanting to get into it, but still, somewhere within themselves feeling the utter disgust for these Brits... and then here comes William Wallace (aka Mel - only because I talking about the movie here folks) who rides up and lights a fire under their kilts and off they go to war shouting hu-rah (or whatever).
-
"38. Across the waveless sea of eternity Thou didst ride with Thy captains and Thy hosts; with Thy chariots and horsemen and spearmen didst Thou travel through the blue."
Adonai and his posse stroll through eternity to come pick up the Adept. The references to The Chariots and The Spearmen bring to mind the Chariot and The Lovers trumps, of whose paths extend from Chokmah and Binah into Tiphareth.
"39. Before I saw Thee Thou wast already with me; I was smitten through by Thy marvellous spear."
In all of the chapters, there has been this startling realization that Adonai has ALWAYS been with the Adept. Usually at the end but here it feels different. Perhaps this is the beginning of that identification within the element of Fire. The spear brings to mind the Will of Adonai, violently thrusted into the Adept. But not in a malicious way but sort of a way to put the Adept out of his misery.
"[40. I was stricken as a bird by the bolt of the thunderer; I was pierced as the thief by the Lord of the Garden.
- O my Lord, let us sail upon the sea of blood!/quote]
Bird= Ruach? The rational mind totally arrested by the force of merging with the Supersconciousness of Adonai perhaps?
-
38. Across the waveless sea of eternity Thou didst ride with Thy captains and Thy hosts; with Thy chariots and horsemen and spearmen didst Thou travel through the blue.
39. Before I saw Thee Thou wast already with me; I was smitten through by Thy marvellous spear.
40. I was stricken as a bird by the bolt of the thunderer; I was pierced as the thief by the Lord of the Garden.
41. O my Lord, let us sail upon the sea of blood!Reading verse 38, I picture the vast open sea with myriads of people on board a Ship. Each being but an atom in the scope of eternity, but all inherent to to our existence today. The first half of the verse 39 is a recurring theme within this book and also a common thread I've heard elsewhere. "We're trying for something that has already found us". The "Truth" is so simple that it is complex - hence the need to stop the wavering winds of our thoughts, still the mind, and view the Truth Ineffable. The feeling of being smitten by the Angel's spear (I think the Angel here) gives me the impression of something that runs very deep into the soul. So deep so that it gives the feeling that one was an innocent bird going about regular business and being stricken by a bolt or flash of lightning. At the opposite end, it feels like being "caught" by the Lord in His Garden sneaking around and then suddenly pierced through by the Spear. Perception then circles back to the Ship sailing in Eternity through the blood, life force, of all that came before.
I find it interesting that in verse 38 the ship was sailing through the blue and in verse 41 the ship is sailing through blood. The piercing by the Spear seems to change perspective and demand acceptance of the Truth that seems terrible to us who view things from the "mortal" aspect below the Abyss.
On a side note - I tried out a little meditation last night while listening to some chants by Buddhists monks and I feel it is shading my perspective here as well. I felt the chanting build, change, and explode to a certain degree as it went from a monotonous tone to an almost sinister tone. I could not help feeling helplessly guided by the sounds until they crashed and ended in a bit of what felt like just noise. It ignited a bit of terror, but not a terror of anything specific, just a general feeling. The verses today give me a similar feeling in some ways.
-
(On a "day off" for these, I'm catching up posting diary entries that I didn't get added to these threads over the summer.)
What I have received from this today:
The essence of this particular practice is simply the continuing awareness of, and abiding within, the interminable Love of the Holy Guardian Angel.
I am quite keen not to make these remarks an intellectual elaboration, but they are aimed at more than just my diary - so, I find, I need to establish a few concepts just so there is a common language.
"38. Across the waveless sea of eternity Thou didst ride with Thy captains and Thy hosts; with Thy chariots and horsemen and spearmen didst Thou travel through the blue."
Yesterday's verses climaxed with the approach, the arrival of the Holy Guardian Angel. This arrival is not to the Master but, rather, to the Adept. In this verse, the Angel is travelling "through the blue," i.e., Air, Ruach, the field of ego and reason (blue disk tattwa). The Angel's arrival is across "the waveless sea of eternity," i.e., the still, silent, immortal sea of Binah, Neshamah - but the arrival (following the opening of the portal of the Abyss in the prior verse, allowing this penetrating) is into the Adept's mortal mind, "the blue."
The chief characteristic of this part of mind is division or multiplicity. The Angel appears accompanied by "captains and... hosts," i.e., various thoughts and other repercussions in the conscious mind, a range of thoughts all arising in response to the vibrations set in motion by the impact of the Angel's presence on the mortal psyche.
It was on these that I remained mindful one and off throughout the day as my living meditation. - The way in which thoughts arising in my mind are consequences of the impact of the Angel's presence.
"39. Before I saw Thee Thou wast already with me;"
A fairly common phenomenon. The Angel is always with the Adept and, even with the aspirant, is that Light "which has gone ever before you even when you knew it not." This phrase is simply recording a familiar fait accompli.
"41. O my Lord, let us sail upon the sea of blood!"
And here was the other line that caught and held my attention throughout the day. It's rather difficult for me to write about it because it depicts personal experiences reaching over many years for which there isn't necessarily ordinary language.
The Angel has penetrated into the mortal, human (albeit prepared and even familiar) areas of the Adept's psyche. This is not a description of the Adept being lifted into the Supernal realm, I think, but rather of the Angel's penetration, for union, into the Yetziratic part of the Adept's mind and raising it to non-Supernal Briatic levels. (Please excuse all the words. I'm struggling a bit here.)
"The blood is the life." And yet this isn't transient life. It is the physical expression of continuous life. It touches on the mystery of where in our bodies our consciousness abides, and of what constitutes incarnation. The answer is that our consciousness abides not just in the brain, or in the nerve tissue, etc., but in every cell. What we are is the life borne throughout our bodies with every beat of our hearts. Here, the union isn't metaphysical - it's physical but it's far deeper than the level at which we usually experience ourselves abiding. The consciousness of the Adept (my consciousnessness in my several meditations on this verse throughout the day) is united-but-adjacent-to (i.e., with) the Angel at the deep level where we are joined at the cellular level and moving smoothly, easily upon "the sea of blood" which is actual basis of my physical existence. In this companionship I abide in my recurring mindfulness of htis practice throughout the day.
There is a great deal to contemplate in the last paragraph for those who have received formal instruction in the Hermetic, initiatic practice of alchemy - specificially in the way that, physically in the blood, sunlight is joined to that which has already been prepared by the fusion of Yod and Zayin.]